Making your web site LIVE!

At this stage you already have a Web site ready on your PC at home - Justin's personal site and/or your own Web site.

Is your Web site ready? Do you want to upload it onto the Internet? That is the obvious thing to do now, otherwise no one else will be able to see it except for those using your home PC. In order for the HTML pages that you prepared to become a "Web site," they must be accessible to surfers throughout the Web. This is done by giving your Web site an address which usually begins with the letters www. Anything else is not a Web site.

You need to store your Web site files (HTML and images files) on a computer on the World Wide Web that is called a server - as opposed to your computer which requests and receives data and is called a client. The server must be secure, that is, it should have a degree of data security. You don't want other people to be able to access your Web site and make changes to it, do you?

The server you choose to store your files on must be operative 24/7: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

And what about response times? Anyone typing your address expects the Web site to open in less than 10 seconds. If it doesn't, they will probably lose their patience and move on to another site. Response times must be reasonable, so you need to be sure that the server has the necessary infrastructure for this.

Some storage sites restrict access to your site. They may have restrictions on traffic, the transmission from a server to a client; or they might restrict the number of entries, such as 10 entries per day.

There are also storage sites that are copyrighted and do not permit storage and downloading of certain types of files.

How to find a free storage site

1. Go to your favorite search engine.
2. In the Search window type the words (all or part of them): free Web hosting services.
3. Click on Go or Search or whatever is written on the button that launches the search.

You can find all the answers to these questions in Selecting a Web Hosting Server.

How to upload a Web site onto the Internet

The list below explains the stages of this process. It applies to most Web sites.

1. Register with a server that supplies storage service.
2. Receive or choose a user name and password.
3. By return e-mail you will receive confirmation of your registration and the address to which you can upload your files onto a Web site (via ftp or browser).
4. Access the Web site at the address that was allocated and by the means that were selected (either ftp or browser).
5. Upload the files to the site.

You can find all the answers to these questions in Selecting a Web Hosting Server.

I have more questions

You may have more questions such as:

• My name is Nicholas and I would like the address of my Web site to be www.nicholas.com. How do I do that?
• On the server where I am storing my Web site, is it possible to have mail boxes? Is there a hit counter?
• What is the best method for uploading files to the server?
• How can I measure the response time of the storage site?
• Does "free" really mean free?

You can find all the answers to these questions in Selecting a Web Hosting Server.